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Sony Ericsson Aino - Your PS3's Mate

Aino - Did You Know?

The Sony Ericsson Aino is the closest thing to a PSP phone in the market right now. To learn more about the Aino's features as a phone, you can check out our First Looks on it right here .

One of the Aino's most unique functionality is its ability to interface with your PS3 at home to wirelessly access your home media content like music and video files stored on your PS3 at home while you're at a friend's party for example. Wondering how to achieve this on the Aino mobile phone? To answer that, we take you on a quick video walkthrough on how to connect your PS3 with the Aino. Note that the same steps can apply to your PSP apparently if you don't have an Aino on you.

Aino - Now You Know!

Using a built-in application called Remote Play, it allows the PS3's user interface called XMB (XrossMediaBar) to appear on your Aino's 3-inch display screen so that you can access content stored on your PS3's hard drive remotely over a wireless LAN connection seamlessly just as though you were handling the PS3 directly in front of your TV. Do keep in mind that both your Aino and the PS3 have to be updated to the latest version in order for Remote Play to work properly.

The entire set-up of the PS3 and the Aino took a painstaking 6 minutes, which actually seemed like forever but good news is that once this painful process is done, the next time you activate Remote Play, it takes mere seconds to connect to the PS3 media content.

There is however restrictions to what kind of media you can access while Remote Play is engaged. Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected content is not allowed to be streamed from your PS3. Examples of such content include Blu-ray movies, DVD movies, copyright-protected video files and PS2 games are just some of them. Many of these are unlikely to be accessed remotely, so it's not quite a let down. For example, you might want to share, view or use photos/videos taken from your holidays, or listen to music that you made a backup copy from your audio CDs and more.

Media restrictions aside, do note that the Remote Play is just as good as your wireless LAN connectivity and signal strength
. In a highly urbanized part of town, you're bound to get good wireless hot spots without a hassle. That's not quite the case for other areas, which would then require you to have a wireless hot spot creator such as the MiFi 2352 or some other forms of paid subscription based wireless service. There is a 3G connectivity option on the Aino and the PS3, but it's not quite as smooth riding for everyone and we weren't able to get that working properly.

The last consideration for Remote Play to work well - make sure your PS3 is switched on at all times! Sounds simple, but take into consideration of the power drain if you keep the unit switched on 24/7. So practice good power management to keep power wastage at a minimum.

So who should get the Aino? Well, it's a no-brainer with the Aino's special feature of interfacing with the PS3 gaming console so it comes highly recommended for these console owners to complement the Sony ecosystem perfectly. For those looking to access their media content while away from home, you may want to consider the Aino as well, provided that you are looking to get a PS3 in the near future.